How To Install a Grinding Wheel on a Bench Grinder & How to Make it Run True ....

[RoyG]

If you haven't seen it yet, Tim Yoder, on Popular Woodworking Magazine's "Woodturning with Tim Yoder" video series, has just released a video that addresses how to correctly install a new Grinding Wheel on a Bench Grinder. Tim demonstrates a series of steps to ensure that a new grinding wheel runs true both radially and laterally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLOUEnRdBNW4P1Hxe_Xg1gC2Kt6Oeklg1m&v=MakQfF5yIyo

In addition to the Popular Woodworking Magazine's web site, Tim Yoder also has his own YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/woodturningwithtim1/videos - although videos that Tim makes for Popular Woodworking appear on Tim's own YouTube channel around three weeks after they appear on the Popular Woodworking web site.

Edited: 6 December @ 2:00 pm

Two things that I intended to include when I first wrote this post, and then promptly forgot about after I was interrupted by a phone call....

The fancy diamond stone dressing tool that is used in this video is interesting, but you can manage quite well without resorting to buying an expensive accessory as shown in the video. I use a cheap rectangular diamond dressing stone (McJing's I think), in combination with a small engineer's square.

One edge of the engineer's square rests against the edge of the rectangular tool rest, and the handle of the stone dressing tool rests against the edge of the engineer's square. This arrangement allows you to dress the grinding wheel in a way that ensures that the face of the wheel ends up being straight and square to the edge of the tool rest.

As for the suggestion in the video about replacing the plastic sleeve in the centre of a grinding wheel with a more precisely machined metal sleeve - not exactly a new idea. Blackwoods sell steel sleeves for various sizes of grinding wheels, designed to replace the plastic sleeves supplied with most grinding wheels.

Regards,

RoyG

[Yanis]

Great video and some really good tips, especially his safety tips. Very important to check for cracks prior to mounting the stone. I have heard of serious injuries with wheels falling apart. That is why I stand to the side whenever I start my grinder.

However, some of the stuff is not exactly accurate and some of it is really overkill. True it is nice to have a wheel running nice and true but in reality it is more nice rather than necessity, and replacing the plastic bushes with a steel bush. And the diamond dresser holder, if you have the spare cash but I would rather invest in better tools than that gadget. If your grinder is vibrating the bench across the floor you should true the wheel but most of the time OOB is fine. And there are cheaper ways than replacing the bushes and using a fancy diamond tip holder. At least for our purposes.

Also his description of the differences between carbon steel, HSS and carbide is ... well he should not have bothered. I think it is a mistake to use the ceramic wheel, stick with the pure aluminium oxide, much better for sharpening both carbon steel and HSS.

John

[BobL]

Yeah some of his explanations and word mix ups are . . . . well . . . . i guess he trying.

Some of the plastic bushes supplied even by reputable branded wheels are pretty dodgy and I've replaced these, and worn plastic bushes, with brass bushes, but not everyone has a metal lathe to be able to do this.

Interesting trick with the sideways wheel balancing but if, as he says, the cause of the problems are the flanges then it would be better to fix the flanges and that means it would only need to be done once rather than every time a wheel was moved or replaced.
I've only found flanges to be a problem on cheap grinders where sometimes they use a sloppy fit which offsets the flange relative to the shaft.
Once on a grinder I was given because the owner thought it had too much vibe it turned out to be the wheel itself self being a little thicker in one spot.
If it's the wheel thickness itself, no amount of sideways realignment will help and it is better to carefully dress the side of the wheel

He also claims you don't have to sharpen carbide.
I guess in North America where most wood is soft cheese and doesn't contain deposited silica that may be the case, but once you have sharpened carbide tip you'll wonder why you didn't do that more often. Very cheap diamond lapping wheels do a very good job of sharpening CT. These lapping wheels are quite thin and can be mounted on a steel or Al backing plate mounted on the side of a grinding wheel. I have one mounted on the side of a CBN wheel.

The best tip I got from the vid was about using the spray can in the rubbish bin!

[DaveTTC]

thanks, Iwas just thinking about whether my grinder would be better as an anchor. Will watch this in length when I have a decent conection ie not on my phone etc

[China]

Just add to what has been said above, if you are going to use a diamond dresser buy the bar type, single point diamond dresser's are designed to used
in mechanical fixtures, using one by hand will rarely give good results

[hughie]

Yeah some of his explanations and word mix ups are . . . . well . . . . i guess he trying.

Some of the plastic bushes supplied even by reputable branded wheels are pretty dodgy and I've replaced these, and worn plastic bushes, with brass bushes, but not everyone has a metal lathe to be able to do this.

Interesting trick with the sideways wheel balancing but if, as he says, the cause of the problems are the flanges then it would be better to fix the flanges and that means it would only need to be done once rather than every time a wheel was moved or replaced.
I've only found flanges to be a problem on cheap grinders where sometimes they use a sloppy fit which offsets the flange relative to the shaft.
Once on a grinder I was given because the owner thought it had too much vibe it turned out to be the wheel itself self being a little thicker in one spot.
If it's the wheel thickness itself, no amount of sideways realignment will help and it is better to carefully dress the side of the wheel

He also claims you don't have to sharpen carbide.
I guess in North America where most wood is soft cheese and doesn't contain deposited silica that may be the case, but once you have sharpened carbide tip you'll wonder why you didn't do that more often. Very cheap diamond lapping wheels do a very good job of sharpening CT. These lapping wheels are quite thin and can be mounted on a steel or Al backing plate mounted on the side of a grinding wheel. I have one mounted on the side of a CBN wheel.

The best tip I got from the vid was about using the spray can in the rubbish bin!

lol not alot of woodies have an engineering background and probably he is the same. But I agree with your thoughts, the spray can in the rubbish bin was interesting. I find it amazing the amount of mystique that surrounds grinder and their wheels , when much of it is common sense and can be taught in about 5 mins. I think sometimes we can get carried away safety regulations, by that I mean the encroachment of bureaucracy. In the UK when I lived there you had to attend approved training and to get the license to change a grinding wheel :? Something down under that was the apprentices job.

[Christos]

I do enjoy the videos that Tim brings out as I find them relaxing to watch. When I had originally seen his video of the grinder my intention was not to bother but after all the comments I thought that I might.

I know that eventually I will have to change wheels that the grinder came with with. Don't know if I will follow his process or if I will be concern about the degree of balance. I do agree that sometimes you need to clean the dust in and around the grinder. And while I am at it I might as well do the rest of the shed. :roll:

[soundman]

A few years ago I was frustrated that my grinbder whees where not true.

If ya doing typical metal butchery that the majority of grinders get used for, it matters little, but if you are sharpening on the grinder, particularly small items, it matters a great deal.

I replaced the bushes in my grinders with hardwood, that I "turned to fit", for each wheel and each shaft. ... easy done. ...... best dry hardwood is good.

It helps to make the bushes as wide as possible without fouling the clamping plates.

The plates are most definitely a problem on many reasonably priced grinders.

If you go to a lapidary supply store they will often have clamping plates that have been surface ground flat and true ...... when I baught they where not expensive.
When I found these I gave up on the idea of having some turned

Otherwise you could spend some time with the existing plates and some 60 gritt on a flat surface ..... yeh blow that for a game of soldiers.

As for dressing .... I dress my wheels reasonably regularly with one of those diamond block dressers, that you can buy from all the usual suspects.

Before they came on the market I used to dress grinder wheels with large masonary drills.

many people don't realise that masonary drills can benifit from sharpening ....... So in the past I have dressed my grinder wheels when I sharpened my masonary drills.

OH dont forget the thick paper gasket between the plates and the wheel ..... its not just a label

cheers